Much a-di about nothing

So we had a nice pot luck lunch during the Chinese New Year holidays, and played dumb charades after a long long time. I had done up a list of not-so-well-known movies, so obviously I couldn't be the one actively playing. I mimed a bit but did not partake in any guessing. Instead, I just sat back and enjoyed watching the others miming and guessing. 

So Viv gets this movie called 'Satyavan Satyavadi'. (No, I have not seen it!) He is able to mine 'Satyavan' quite easily. He just mimes 'speaking', followed by a 'thumbs up' and the guessers arrive at 'Sach' and then 'Satya'. Then he shows the numeral 'one'. So they have 'Satyavan' and he manages to relay to them that the second word is very similar, except for the last syllable. So they have 'Satyavan Satyava' and are just short of 'di'. Now, any normal person would probably mime it in 5 seconds by showing 'dil' and crossing out the 'l'. But Viv being Viv, the man who has no sense of a ticking clock, takes his guessers on a wild goose chase. And thus starts the long and painful entertaining process of him trying to mime the simple syllable 'di'. I am in the kitchen making chai for everyone but keep peeking to see what on earth he is trying to do.

So first he points to himself and then his mouth and then does a thumbs up. The guessers guess that he is trying to show his mother tongue. "Tamil!" they yell. He nods vigorously. Then he shows a movie camera. "Tamil movies!" they yell. He nods again. Then he shows a man wearing a crown. "King!" Nodding. "King of Tamil movies!" More nodding. "Rajnikanth!" I am still wondering where this is going, because unlike the others, I know all he's trying to get to is 'di'. I wonder if he will show 'po di!' and then get to 'di'. But anyone can say 'po di'; why disturb the great Rajnikanth to say it? Then he shows a baby in the arms of the king. "Rajnikanth's daughter!" they yell. He shows exchange of garlands. "Wedding! Rajnikanth's daughter's wedding! Rajnikanth's son-in-law! Dhanush!" Nod nod. He shows singing. "Dhanush singing! Kolaveri di!" His nods are getting more and more maniacal, while his guessers are wondering what 'Kovaleri di' has to do with all this.  He manages to get them to strike off the 'kolaveri' and keep the 'di'. By then, it's been soooo frickin' long that they have almost forgotten what the first part was. They recall that it was 'Satyavan Satyava' and he gets them to add the 'di' at the end, and FINALLY the poor chaps arrive at 'Satyavan Satyavadi'. They stare at Viv and then at one another. 

I bring them masala chai. It will help them recover.